


right by his side (elu pride fic)

by sauvonslefoyer



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Gay Pride, Internalized Homophobia, Lucas and Eliott attend pride, Lucas is in love with his mec and attends his first pride with him, M/M, Paris Pride 2019, Romance, brief mentions of mental illness, just brief mentions of it, some angsty thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 19:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19409992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sauvonslefoyer/pseuds/sauvonslefoyer
Summary: When he had slowly started coming to terms with himself, he told Mika that he was not the kind of guy who would be walking in a pride parade.Looking at Eliott now, he can’t see any reason why he WOULDN’T be the kind of guy walking in a pride parade.OR: 1.7k words of Elu attending pride together





	right by his side (elu pride fic)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi mecs <3 This is kinda scary for me, but I still did it. After over 4 years of not writing, or at least not publishing the stuff I’ve written, this was the first piece that I felt confident about. I hope you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Happy pride, everyone!!!

“This is your first pride, right?”, Eliott asks him out of nowhere. They are standing somewhere in the middle of the crowd, right where the parade is supposed to start in a couple of minutes, waiting to watch. 

Attending pride is something that Eliott wanted to do, says he’s been going every year since he turned 14 and honestly who is Lucas to deny him that? 

It’s new for him, he’s never been and he feels a bit overwhelmed by it to be honest. All the colorful outfits and decorations, the loud music, all the people around them and he swears they’ve been hugged by at least 20 strangers ever since they arrived about an hour ago, Eliott claiming they needed to be early to get _“a good spot”_ to watch the whole thing.

“Yeah, well, it’s not as if I was comfortable with being out and proud until you came into my life.”, he hears himself say.

And it’s true. Before Eliott, none of this would’ve ever crossed his mind. Meeting Eliott changed his life so much, he can’t even wrap his head around it most days.

“Okay, but that means you’ll have to walk in the parade!”, his boyfriend is excited, he can tell, and it slowly dawns on Lucas that this was probably what he had planned all along. He vehemently shakes his head at that, “No Eliott! I don’t know. It’s not like I can just go and walk in there and people will be watching and cheering and…” He can’t be serious. 

“Oh don’t tell me you’re suddenly shy about people watching you”, he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and Lucas has to resist the strong urge to smack him.

“I don’t mind YOU watching me. I just… don’t like people staring at me.”

“Hm. And if I walked with you? Holding your hand? If I was right by your side the whole time? If I wanted to show off my beautiful boyfriend? Would you reconsider then?”

And okay - apparently Lucas had been wrong. Eliott seems dead serious about this, looking at him with big puppy-eyes. And Lucas has to admit - it’s tempting. 

It sounds like so much fun, the prospect of walking through the packed streets of Paris, hand-in-hand with Eliott, showing off his _mec_ to the world, to the crowd of people gathered to watch the parade, having people cheer for them. 

It sounds nice to let go of the last bits of fear and shame that are left within him. He’s comfortable with being openly gay now, with his friends and his family knowing. He’s okay with being out at school. He’s okay with strangers knowing about him as long as Eliott is by his side.

But sometimes, when he’s alone, there’s that little voice inside him that still leaves him scared. That tells him that being out and proud is dangerous. That has him look up ‘hate crimes Paris’ in the middle of the night. That reminds him how just a few months ago, he thought that all of this, that he so proudly embraces now, was the most disgusting thing in the world. When he slowly started coming to terms with himself, he even told Mika that he was not the kind of guy who would be walking in a pride parade. 

Looking at Eliott now, he can’t see how anything about them, about their love could be wrong or disgusting. 

Looking at Eliott now, he can’t see any reason why he WOULDN’T be the kind of guy walking in a pride parade. 

Looking at Eliott now, he doesn’t have any reasons to be scared.

“Okay let’s do this.”, his boyfriend’s whole face lights up at his words and next thing he knows, he’s being pulled into Eliott’s arms, his man hugging him and placing a kiss into his hair. Before Lucas can bury himself into Eliott’s chest for real, the brown-haired boy is pulling away, grabbing his arm and pulling him through the crowd, like he knows exactly where he’s headed. They only slow down once they get close to a colorful gaggle of beautifully dressed drag-queens. 

As Eliott (with Lucas in tow) approaches them, they stop their chatter in favor of looking at the pair approaching. One of them is wearing dark makeup with glittery highlights and dressed in a beautiful red gown, that flows down her long lean body perfectly, just like the black waves of her hair that seem endless, flowing down her back, stopping at her hip. 

As soon as she notices Eliott, she breaks away from the group and practically flings herself into his boyfriend’s arms. “ELI!!!”, she squeals, clearly excited to see him. She hits Eliott full force, an ‘oof’ escaping the older boy as he lets go of Lucas’ arm in favor of wrapping his arms around her. She’s taller than him, a full head, yet, she crouches down and puts her head on his shoulder. Lucas watches the whole thing, confused, and maybe a little jealous. 

When she sees Lucas standing back awkwardly she untangles herself from Eliott and his boyfriend is right back at his side, putting an arm around his waist, pulling him towards her. “And who is that handsome young man, Eli?”, Lucas is sure his cheeks are turning bright pink when he looks at the taller boy who is standing up tall, proudly puffing out his chest and looking at Lucas like he hung the moon and the stars. Lucas loves Eliott looking at him like this. 

“Nana, this is Lucas, Lulu - the love of my life. Baby, this is Nana, a very good friend of mine.” Nana’s entire face lights up even more and she’s quick to rush forward and hug Lucas tightly. And who is he to deny her? Stranger number 21 he’s hugging today, so what? So he wraps his arms around her and hugs her back just as tightly. 

“I’m so so happy to meet you Lulu. I’m so glad that my beautiful boy Eli found you. Make him happy, will ya? He’s the best guy I know.”, she whispers in his ear. 

When they pull back, Lucas shoots ‘Eli’ a questioning glance asking _“How do you know each other”_ without actually asking. Before Eliott can answer his silent question though, Nana is already answering for him “Eli and I go way back, isn’t that right? At least it feels like it. We met in group therapy.” His boyfriend throws an arm over his shoulder, pulling him closer again. 

“Nana helped me a lot with coming to terms with being bipolar. She told me a thing or two, took me under her wing a bit so to say. It’s good having someone to talk to who knows what you’re going through, you know? Especially when it’s all new and scary for you.”

And wow, as much as he was confused and jealous a second ago, he’s glad that Eliott introduced him to someone else who seems to be a permanent fixture in his life. He’s glad Eliott trusts him enough to let him meet people who know this side of him that he so rarely likes to talk about. Meeting Nana, Lucas once again feels special and is reminded that this between them is something that heavily leans towards “forever”. 

“Speaking of new-”, Eliott words break him out of his thoughts, “it’s Lucas’ first pride. And we’d love to walk in the parade with you, if you and the girls will have us, Nana.” His words seem to set the brightly and boldly dressed group standing close-by in motion. Of course they’ve been eavesdropping. “I hear we have a first-timer among us, Eli?”, a blonde in a light-blue dress asks excitedly and soon Lucas and Eliott find themselves surrounded by the loud and colorful group, all of them lining up, getting ready to walk in the parade. 

“Wait boys, you’re missing something”, Charlotte, a petite brunette in a yellow jumpsuit tells them while she waves over an intimidating-looking man (at least to Lucas, thank you very much), who is standing off to the side, dressed in all-black, and carrying a big handbag. “Baby, they need some color, can you do that? This is a pride after all. And he’s a first-timer”, at her words the guy smiles, a big toothy smile, already rifling through his bag, pulling out things at random, throwing them back in with a shake of his head, until he finds what he’s looking for. 

.

.

Not 20 minutes later Lucas finds himself doing exactly what he’d imagined doing earlier that day. He’s holding his man’s hand, proudly walking down the streets of Paris with the rest of the parade, getting thrown air kisses by strangers, catching them, throwing air kisses back at them, the crowd cheering for them. Lucas thinks he must look absolutely ridiculous with flags drawn on his cheeks and a pride flag wrapped around his shoulders, but looking at Eliott next to him, rocking his attire, he really couldn’t care less. 

When the parade slows down and stops for a second, his boyfriend, much to Lucas’ surprise and dismay lets go of his hand and quickly makes his way over to one of the people standing off to the side, watching the parade. He talks to them for a second or two and when he returns Lucas can see that he’s hiding something behind his back, the smile he’s wearing nearly splitting his face in half. Lucas can’t help but answer with a matching smile when Eliott’s hand finally appears from behind his back, holding out a single red rose to Lucas. 

He takes it, of course, feeling his cheeks heat up again and before Eliott can say anything, Lucas pulls him in for a kiss, deep and loving and hopefully expressing everything the smaller one can’t put into words. The crowd around them cheers and whoops for them and when they pull apart, resting their foreheads against each other, nuzzling their noses together, Lucas is pretty sure he can hear a couple of ‘aww’s’ being thrown into the mix.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“Forever?”

“Forever.”

Looking at Eliott now, walking with him as the parade starts moving again, he can see his future bright and clear. He can see them 20, 30, 40 years down the road, doing exactly what they’re doing right now. Whatever life might throw at him, he knows Eliott will be there through it all, walking proudly right by his side. 

**Author's Note:**

> P.S.: A special thanks to my lovely girl-squad Anna, Zoë & Bella, who have been encouraging me and inspiring me non-stop during these past few months <3 I love you!


End file.
